The governor of Virginia on Thursday rejected President Trump’s claim that white nationalists gathered in Charlottesville to protest the removal of the statue of a Confederate general, saying they came to display their hatred and bigotry.

“This is not just about monuments. This was a big issue that happened in this country on Saturday. These people who came to Charlottesville — the neo-Nazis, the alt-right, they weren’t here for a statue,” Gov. Terry McAuliffe said on CBS’s “This Morning.”

“They went to the University of Virginia on Friday night with their torches, that had nothing to do with a statue. There was hatred, there was bigotry that has been unleashed in this country and we need to understand how it has happened — most importantly what we can do moving forward as a nation,” said McAuliffe, a Democrat.

Trump has been widely criticized for defending the white supremacists groups, including the KKK and neo-Nazis, who converged on the college town over the weekend for a “Unite the Right” rally.

“I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me,” Trump said Tuesday during a news conference at Trump Tower. “Not all of those people were white supremacists, by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue of Robert E. Lee.”

McAuliffe said it wasn’t about the statue but about hate.

“I have lost three great citizens,” McAullife said. “This is hatred, and we got to address it. These were not patriots, these were cowards.”

Two Virginia state troopers also died when their helicopter crashed as they were monitoring the protests.

McAuliffe said Trump’s comments are “dividing people” and called on the president to help begin the healing.

“If the president wants to come to Charlottesville and address our citizens, talk about how we can heal as a nation and how we need to move forward, then that is what the president of the United States should do. I do not want the president to come here to continue on with the speeches he’s given for the last couple of days,” McAuliffe said.